Abandonment Anxiety With Survivors of Abuse

One of the many issues that survivors of abuse suffer from writes Matt Pappas of Surviving My Past, is fear of abandonment, or abandonment anxiety. It can be intertwined into much of our abuse recovery but until we realize it we might not even be aware just how much of a role it has in our daily life.

This feeling of being abandoned is not just in the physical sense, but the emotional side as well.

For a long time, I had never equated abandonment to my healing journey until it was directly pointed out to me in a session with my Life Coach. It makes sense though, total sense, when we logically look at how it affects us.

If we were abandoned, in any sense of the word, our minds will keep reminding us of the potentially harmful outcomes for any situation we encounter. While these warning signs are good, and normal, we have to be careful not to let them rule our lives and keep us from embracing new, healthy, experiences.

Perhaps you can relate to some of the abandonment struggles that I suffered through and still deal with today. I’ll touch on them briefly but you can always search the blog for more in-depth posts and thoughts on these topics.

Being a victim of childhood sexual abuse, at the hands of the teenager up the street so long ago, there is definitely a sense of being abandoned.

In this case, not so much physical abandonment, but more on the emotional side.

My sense of self-worth was crushed before it ever really got started. So, my healthy emotional needs for love, support, and validation as a child, were twisted into a sick version of lies and manipulation. I was left feeling like the only way I could ever fit in and be cool, was to participate and allow that kid to use me for his own sadistic gratification.

In terms of family relationships as well, my realistic and normal needs of to feel supported and loved.

were abandoned and turned around into a type of validation that only came with emotional pain. Again, if I wanted to feel like I belonged, I had to give in to something that hurt me deeply each time.

Being bullied in school, there is definite abandonment here as well. I was ridiculed, manipulated, and beat up both emotionally and physically. I was left outside of the cool kid activities, the last one picked in gym class for teams, and normally sat alone on the bus.

When you are laughed at and looked down upon by those whom others look to as being the ones to emulate, it takes a toll. It ingrains into your head, a feeling of not being good enough. The more you endure that emotional trauma, the harder it is to fight off as we get older.

There is no “just getting over” this type of stuff. Emotional trauma does not heal at anywhere near the rate that physical trauma can.

What about being abandoned in the Narcissistic abuse sense? Yes, no doubt about it, that is a valid feeling.

In my case, emotional support and validation were never part of my home life so I was left to feel alone and like I couldn’t reach out to anyone. My desires, my likes and dislikes were constantly dismissed in favor how I “should feel” or how I “should act”.

This left me no sense of self, and no ability to feel like my interests mattered. The way that I felt about any given situation or topic was always turned into, “well that’s not right, don’t think like that. You need to feel this way”.

Talk about a lack of confidence in my own decision making during my growing up years! If I wasn’t on the same page as my mother was or the church was (seemingly 1 in the same), then I was flat out wrong. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. “You don’t think like that Matt, it’s not right. God doesn’t honor that and neither do I”.

Relationships, here is a situation of both physical and emotional abandonment that I endured.

My first marriage lasted for less than 5 years, and ended with me being left at the doorstep with two young kids. I had to pick up the pieces as a parent and a young man in his mid 20’s who had no clue what happened and what I did wrong at the time.

My second marriage lasted for 12 years, and ended with the love of my life leaving me to explore life in a different direction and experience what she never got too, because she got married too young. Again, I was left to pick up the pieces, this time as an older adult at 41 and now with a 3rd child.

Every serious relationship that I’ve ever had has gone south and left me feeling alone, beaten down emotionally, and completely used up. To say that I was and am gun-shy about relationships now is an understatement.

It’s a big reason I put up so many walls to keep others out, and protect my heart from any more pain. I’m already “that guy” whose been divorced twice. Those feelings, growing up and being in a family where divorce is pretty much not an option, can definitely enforce the feeling of being a black sheep.

So, is it any wonder that abandonment anxiety is such a big part of my healing journey? Once I put the pieces together of how much it ties into my very existence, it paints a very real picture of the work ahead of me.

On the flip side, by validating these feelings as being real and justified, I can understand them better and be more focused in my survivor work. When you are tune with yourself, congruent if you will, you know how certain situations affect you and can work towards dealing with them in a more positive, self-validating way.

In addition, you can share your fears of being abandoned with those whom you trust. This gives your partner, spouse, or friends an understanding of what troubles you and how they can best support you. It helps them to not make incorrect assumptions about you, but rather acknowledge your insecurities and help you overcome them by being patient and validating.

Abandonment Anxiety is real, it’s justified, and it’s not uncommon. Just like other types of anxiety though, once we recognize the role it’s played in our lives, we can more counter it with self-care, mindfulness, and wise mind/rational mind thinking.

Your feelings are real, my feelings are real, but we don’t have to let them dictate our future.

-Matt

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Published by youwillbearwitness

I am Sociologist who has just completed writing a memoir of my first eighteen years in which I was the victim of a paedophile ring organised by my parents and their best friend. The object of this blog is to share that story and the information I have learned on Complex PTSD and Severe Trauma and demystify the aura surrounding these mental illnesses and give hope to others both professional and suffers that survival of such trauma and ensuing suicidality is possible. I want this blog to be a cauldron of information.
View all posts by youwillbearwitness

Thanks for sharing, it helps me because I find it so hard to connect and articulate the emotions…I can tell you facts about what happened but getting to the deep stuff…not yet….at times I dismiss the impact of what happened to me ….but I know the affect its still having on me today.

I am glad you found the article useful and it helped you. It can be very difficult to articulate emotions. Facts are so different aren’t they ? Good luck for the future. I hope you find peace. All the best Erin

Really good article, I can relate to a lot of what you said and can only imagine how you must have felt back then. How’s things now, I’m still in that dark tunnel and avoiding everyone and everything. Could you also if you dont mind leave some feedback on my 1st blog post

I am 58. After losing my mother and only sibling at 5; my dad married a schizophrenic. Soon he joined her in my abuse.
My ‘fault’ was due to my surviving.
I have allowed myself to heal as much as possible and forgive, but the residual effect is sabotaging my self, I am now homeless and once again, ‘starting over’.
It is so exhausting.
Penny

Hi Penny thank you for getting in contact. I am so sorry to hear of your abuse. You should not have been treated in that way. It is heinous to act like that towards a child and it is wrong in every way. Forgiveness in that situation is very hard. I do hope that you do not remain homeless for long and that you can start over quickly and positively soon. You deserve only the very best. Are there services that you can tap into that could help you get going again and provide you with shelter so you are safe? I have no doubt you must be absolutely exhausted by it all. Please contact me anytime you want to talk on erinfado@gmail.com. All the very best. Erin